The region is not immune to extreme winter weather in early February. Far from it. The Sports Business Journal reported Monday that the league has already discussed several contingency plans if ugly weather hits the area on the weekend of Feb. 2, 2014.

Options include delaying the game several days or moving the game up to Saturday if bad weather is in the forecast. The league believes it can contend with a typical winter storm. The bigger concern is a nor'easter that could paralyze the region.

Said one source: "We have to look at all the angles: storm arriving day-of-game, storm arriving prior to game, storm arriving after game."

"You know it will be a lot cooler, but there will be a lot of people and transportation issues regardless," said Jeff Miller, NFL vice president of security. "When you have a lot of moving parts and large crowds, you are moving on transportation systems already overloaded with daily commuters, so you've got some issues to deal with."

It all seems awfully stressful, but the league obviously has its reasons for attempting to widen its Super Bowl net. Probability favors manageable conditions, but there are no guarantees. We're about to find out if Mother Nature is a football fan.